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QR Codes Are Evil – Part II

May 9, 2023

Readers should know how I feel about QR codes. You really don’t know where those little smashed up squirrely graphics symbols are going to take you. Hence…QR codes are evil. Yet, we are seeing more and more QR codes showing up in our daily lives. It seems like you can’t even get a menu at a restaurant without shooting a picture of a QR code. Thank you, no. Unless the wait staff wants to decode the symbol and print a menu, I’ll go somewhere else.

Not to miss an opportunity, cybercriminals are using the increased distribution of QR codes to part you from your money or take control of your device via malicious software. Bleeping Computer posted several warnings about QR code usage. In one case, a woman shot a picture of a QR code from her phone in order to fill out a survey to get a free product. Unfortunately, that action allowed cybercriminals to extract $20,000 from her bank account. Another prevalent attack leaves a fake parking ticket on your car with a “convenient” QR code to pay your fine. Apparently, a lot of these fake parking tickets have surfaced in San Francisco.

Keep calm and boycott QR codes.

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